List of fortresses besieged in the Great Northern War
The list of fortresses besieged in the Great Northern War contains all permanent places or entrenchments that became the focus of fighting in the war from 1700 to 1721 .
overview
At that time, there were far fewer fortifications in Central , Northern and Eastern Europe than in Western Europe . For example, through the buildings of Vauban , France had a system of fortresses in front of it that made war on the move and extensive operations difficult. In contrast, it was easier for those involved in the Great Northern War to carry out major advances, as was the case with the invasion of Charles XII. in Poland in 1701, in Saxony in 1706 and Ukraine in 1708. But also in north-eastern Europe there were individual fortresses that could be of importance for the control of individual regions.
Fortresses were Sweden's most important military bulwarks against external enemies. During the whole of the second half of the 17th century , the fortifications in Sweden proper, but also in the Baltic provinces, were renewed and expanded. The background to this was the increasingly threatening Moscow state , which sought a revision of the Peace of Stolbowo of 1617. But also experts like Erik Dahlberg , head of the fortification state, pushed the fortress construction in Sweden steadily forward. Until 1700, however, it was not possible to completely complete the expansion of the fortresses.
The experiences of the Livonian War from the 16th century, which went down in history as the Castle War , also had an impact on the thoughts and actions of the military leaders in the Great Northern War. Sieges were therefore a relatively common feature of warfare in the Great Northern War. Fortresses served as refuge from enemy troops and as symbols of the empire's ability to defend itself. For this reason, the conquests of Vyborg, Reval, Mitau and Riga in 1710 by Russia, or of Stettin in 1713, Stralsund in 1715 and Wismar in 1716 by Denmark and Prussia were important stages in the collapse of the Swedish Empire.
In the Swedish Baltic provinces, around 20 garrisoned fortresses protected against enemy attacks. They had different functions and can be divided into three groups according to the criterion of their interaction with the local civilian population. Riga , Narva , Dorpat , Reval and Pernau fulfilled dual functions as large garrison and trading cities. The Dünamünder Schanze and the Koberschanze served as pure garrison fortresses with no civilian population. Smaller fortified towns such as Neuhausen , Kokenhusen , Marienburg , Weißenstein , Jama or Arensburg housed small military colonies. The highest density of fortifications was found in Swedish Livonia and Swedish Estonia . The original number of Livonian castles was 150. 50 of these castles were surrounded by earth bastions in the 17th century . In the Russian Tsar, there were still wooden fortresses on Ukrainian territory, which differed from the contemporary construction.
The strategically most important and strongest of all fortresses in the Baltic provinces was Riga. Here, the 3,000 to 4,000-strong garrison, together with the Koberschanze and Neumünde / Dünamünde fortifications, formed the Swedish defense center of the Baltic provinces. The fortresses Narva and Ivangorod at the mouth of the Narva were a second-order center .
The war meant the end of almost all Livonian fortifications. Some of them were blown up during or after sieges. Others were given up after the war due to the changed borders and the loss of the protective function. The ruins were also used as a quarry for building houses in Latvia .
Cartographic overview
The sieges were concentrated along the coastal areas of the Baltic Sea . Only a few sieges took place further away from the Baltic Sea. These sieges took place in Belarus , southern Poland and Ukraine . Most of the forts that were besieged were on the territory of the Swedish Empire. Of these, Swedish Livonia , Swedish Ingermanland, and Swedish Pomerania were the provinces with the most sieges.
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Location of the besieged fortresses in the Great Northern War |
List of besieged fortresses
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literature
- Different from Fryxell: History of Charles the Twelfth. New edition. Mustard, Leipzig 1865.
- Not so Fryxell: Life story of Charles the Twelfth, King of Sweden. Transferred from the Swedish original freely by Georg F. von Jenssen-Tusch. Volume 1. Vieweg, Braunschweig 1861, digitized .
- Ralph Tuchtenhagen : Central State and Province in Early Modern Northeast Europe. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2008.
- Alexander Querengässer: Sieges in the Great Northern War
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